Richard In Your Mind, Pikelet@ Gaelic, Sydney (25/09/10)

Tue 28th Sep, 2010 in Gig Reviews

I have heard it said many times that Pikelet is a little ball of musical quirkiness, and while watching her perform at the Gaelic on Saturday I learnt that this description certainly is accurate.

The set opened with Evelyn Morris playing a xylophone that was housed in what looked like a children’s tool kit, Tarquin Manek rocking the clarinet and Matthew Cox temporarily trading in his skins for some multi-coloured wine glasses. It was a perfect example of Pikelet and undoubtedly offered a good representation of the inventive style of music to follow. With a variety of instruments and a voice that demands attention the show felt very much like an imaginative performance, a unique creation of sounds that built upon each other and came together to form multi-layered songs. And on the whole this artistic approach worked well, although there were some moments I thought the layering was perhaps overdone and the sound may have benefited from a small downscale.

Morris has such an endearing presence on stage and occasionally it would have been better to simply let that shine through with a more organic sound, rather than include a consortium of instruments that didn’t always complement each other positively. However, this element of noise confusion may have been a result of some engineering glitches, as Morris requested a couple of technical tweaks after each of the first few songs and acknowledged things may have been smoother had they done a sound check before the show.

Happily though, the set unquestionably improved as time progressed and the crowd was treated to some great new songs from Stem as well as some oldies from her self titled album. My favourite song of the set was Swooping Buzzards, which boasts a great bass line and had me suitably captivated – however the set was quite the holistic magical journey, a collective sense of innovative construction that conceptually worked together without lending itself to stand-out hits.

Although I thought the Gaelic was notably filled during Pikelet, the crowd significantly swelled a couple of moments before Richard In Your Mind took the stage, and they immediately impressed. The first thing that struck me was the voice of Richard Cartwright, as it stood out by being intriguing but not all-consuming. It perfectly fit the psychedelic, up-beat folky pop feel of the music and was intriguing to listen to without overtaking the tunes behind it. And indeed brilliant tunes they are. The drum machine added a unique edge and the inclusion of tambourine and harmonica gave a cheerful country feel that created a collective sense of happy love in the room.

Cartwright certainly looked comfortable behind his acoustic guitar and despite breaking his foot skateboarding that day, drummer Pat Torres was present and playing perfectly with foot encased in plaster, something the crowd (myself included) found highly commendable. Each of the five guys exude a laid-back feeling and somehow manage to offer the crowd energetic music that is simultaneously relaxing. They make the kind of music you could listen to over and over again and always find it enjoyable – which is a damn hard thing to do. Their songs invoked inspiring images of cruising freely through a desert, wind blowing through my hair and sun pouring into my skin, which was pretty remarkable as I was actually standing shoulder to shoulder with many other people in a dark venue, far from any picturesque desert.

They played quite a few songs from their recent album My Volcano and definitely justified the many accolades they have received following its release in June. The eclectic quality of the album excellently shone through to the live set and I walked away feeling I’d just had a well-rounded, extremely enjoyable musical experience. It seemed the crowd felt the same, as after calling for an encore there was much cheering and dancing to be seen as the band concluded their show with a jammy musical outburst that was like watching someone being possessed with genius musical inspiration.

All in all, a fantastic show and a band I would love to see again, and again, and again.